Briquet-machine.



D. E. BANGS.

BRIQUIBT MACHINE.

APPLIUATION FILED JULY 13,1901.

91 6,827. Patented Mar. 30, 1909.

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D. E. BANGS.

I BRIQUET MACHINE.

APPLIUATION FILED JULY 13.1907.

91 6,827. Patented Mar. 30, 1909.

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UNITED ST orator...

BBIQUE T-MACHINE Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 30, 1909.

Application filed July 13, 1907. Serial No. 388,606.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID E. BANGS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Medford, in the county of Middlesex and State ofMassachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements inBriquet-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to briquet machines especially designed forpreparing peat for use as fuel, and is an improvement on the machine forwhich Letters Patent of the United States No. 855,379 were granted to meMay 28, 1907, one object of my present improvements being to providemeans for separating foreign substances from the peat before the latterreaches the grinding mechanism to prevent injury to the mechanism bysuch foreign substances.

A further object is to provide improved means for grinding orcomminuting the peat.

My invention consists in the construction, combination and arrangementof devices hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings,Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal centralsectional view of a briquet machine constructed in accordance with myinvention. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a rearelevation of the same.

The casing l is provided with supporting legs 2 and has a lower mixingor pugging chamber 3 disposed horizontally and of cy lindrical form. Oneend of said pugging chamber is closed, as at 4;, and is provided with abearing 5. The other end of such chamber is open and receives the innerend of a tubular extension 6 which forms a feed compartment or chamber?which constitutes in effect the continuation of the chamber 3 and isprovided at its outer end with a molding or die plate 8 which is held byan an nulus 9. Said die plate has a plurality of die openings 10. Theupper portion of the casing forms a grinding chamber 11 which isprovided with a top plate 12 detachably bolted thereon, as at 13, andthe front wall of such grinding chamber has an upwardly and outwardlyinclined portion 1 1, the plate 12 being sufficiently long to cover suchin clined portion 14 and having an opening 15 which is over the same.

A driving shaft 16 is mounted in bearings 17 and is provided at its rearend with a knife 18 which has reversely curved cutting blades 19 whichoperate on the rear side of the annulus 9 and serve, as hereinafterstated, to cut the material which is forced through the mold openings ofthe mold plate 8 in predetermined lengths. The said shaft 16 is providednear is front end with sprocket wheels 20 and 21.

Extending longitudinally through the mixing chamber 3 is a rotary shaft22 on which is a tubular sleeve 23 provided with a plurality of rows ofradiating mixing knives or blades 24 pitched at a diagonally transverseinclination, as shown, for feeding the material toward the rear end ofthe shaft on which there is provided, within the eX- tension 6, a doublespiral feed screw 25 which serves to force material through the openingsof the mold plate. The said shaft is mounted in the bearing 5, and thefeed screw at the rear end of such shaft supports the same in thetubular extension 6. Said shaft has a sprocket wheel 26 which isconnected to the sprocket wheel 21 of the shaft 16 by an endlesssprocket chain 27 and is further provided with a beveled gear 28.

In the grinding chamber 11 which is directly above and communicates withthe pugging or mixing chamber 3 are two pairs of grinding rolls 29, 30,the former above the latter, and their shafts being journaled inbearings 31 which are adjustable and are disposed in guide openings 32at the ends of the said grinding chamber, adjusting screws beingprovided to adjust such pairs of grinding rolls and hold the same whenset at any required adjustment. The shaft of one of the lower rolls 30has a sprocket wheel 34- and another sprocket wheel 35, the latter beingconnected by an endless sprocket chain 36 to the sprocket wheel 20 ofthe driving shaft 16. The other lower roller shaft is provided with asprocket wheel 37, the underside of which is engaged by the upper leadof the said sprocket chain 36, such sprocket chain passing also over adirection idle sprocket wheel 38. Since the upper lead of such sprocketchain engages the upper side of the sprocket wheel 35 of one of thelower rolls and the underside of the sprocket wheel 37 of the otherlower roll, it will be apparent that such rolls are turned in reversedirections.

Endless sprocket chains 39 connect the sprocket wheels 40 of the upperrolls and the sprocket wheels 34: of the lower rolls so that the upperand lower pairs of rolls are driven simultaneously.-

On the upper side of the casing at the'end same project-s below saidthereof provided with the inclined wall 14 E is a preliminary mixingcasing which is upright, is of cylindrical form and comprises a lowersection 42 and an upper section 43, said section 42 being bolted on thetop plate 12 of the casing 1 and disposed over the opening 15, and saidsection 43 being bolted above said section 42, as at 44. A mold plate45, which is provided with mold openings, is disposed in the opening 15,forms the bottom of the chamber formed within the lower section 42 andis secured to such lower section, as by means of bolts 46. A similarmold plate'47 is secured by the bolts 44 between the upper end of thelower section 42 and the lower end of the upper section 43. Said section'43 is provided on one side at r a point near its lower end with alaterally extending tubular arm 48 which forms a trap for the receptionof rock and other foreign substances which may be mixed with the peat.The outer end of such trap re- Geptacle is provided with a hinged door49 which may be opened or closed at will. At the upper end of the uppersection 43 is a hopper 50 through which peat is fed to such uppersection, and in the bottom of the said hopper is a transverse bar 51which has a bearing for the upper end of a shaft 52, which is verticallydisposed and is also journaled in openings in the mold plates 45, 47, abearing 53 in the lower side of the inclined wall 14 and a bearing 54 atthe front end of the casing 1. Said shaft has at its lower end a beveledgear 55 which engages the beveled gear 28, so that power is transmittedto such shaft 52 from the shaft 22. Mixing knives or blades 56, 57,which are similar to the knives or blades 24, project radially from theshaft 52 and operate respectively in the upper section 43 and the lowersection 42. Said shaft is further provided with a cutter knife 58disposed immediately below and coacting with the die plate 47 and acutter'knife 59 is disposed immediately below and coacts with the dieplate 47, said cutter knives being similar in construction to the knife18, hereinbefore described. l

A steam pipe 60 is provided, the function of which is to dischargeexhaust steam or low pressure steam into the chamber 7 formed by thetubular extension 6 of the pugging chamber 3.

The operation of my improved briquet machine is as follows: he crudepeat is placed in the hopper 50 and is fed thereby into the chamberformed in the upper section 43 of the preliminary pugging casing whereit is acted upon by the knives or blades 56 which serve to mix andpartially disintegrate the same and force the same downwardly throughthe openings in the upper die plate 47, the knife 58 serving to out thematerial as the erase:

plate and cause such material to drop into the lower chamber formed inthe lower section 42 of such preliminary pugging casing. The downwardmovement of stones or other foreign substances which may he associatedwith the crude peat is arrested by the die plate 47, and the action ofthe knives or arms 56 is such as to cause such foreign substances to beforced outwardly into the trap 48 from which they may be removed fromtime to time as they accumulate by first opening the door 49. Thematerial which is discharged into the chamber formed in the lowersection 42 of the preliminary pugging casing is remixed and worked bythe action of the blades or arms 57 which blades also serve to force theremixed material down through the openings in the die plate 46. Suchremixed material is cut by the action of the knife 59 and drops into theupper portion of the grinding cham-' her and upon the inclined wall 14and is fed by such inclined wall on to the upper pair of grinding rolls29. The action of the grinding rolls 29 and 30 is such as to cause thematerial to be thoroughly ground between them, and such ground materialdrops from the grinding chamber into the lower finally mixing or puggingchamber 3, where such material is acted upon by the mixing or puggingblaces or arms 24 and forced rearwardly through such finally mixing orpugging chamber to the action of the feed screws 25 which serve to forcesuch ground and finally pugged or mixed material through the openings ofthe die plate 8. As such material is thus forced lO the action of thefeed screw through the openings in such die plate it is moistened by thesteam from the pipe 60 to cause its particles to adhere so that briquetsare formed by the passage of the material through the openings in thedie plate 8, such briquets being cut into lengths by the action of thecutter 18.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new, is

1. A briquet machine comprising a casing having a lower chamber and agrinding chamber above said lower chamber, pugging, forming and cuttingmechanisms in sai lower chamber, longitudinally disposed grinding rollsin the grinding chamber, a plate forming a cover for such grindingchaiiber and having an opening above said rolls, and a preliminarymixing mechanism con'iprising a casing having its lower endcommunicating with said opening and provided at its upper end with ahopper, a perforated plate forming the bottom of said casing and arevolving stirring element in said casing above said plate and having acutter below and coacting with said plate.

2. A briquet machine comprising a main casing having a chamber in itslower portion and a grinding chamber above said lower chamber pugging,forming and cutting mechanisms in said lower chamber, horizontallydisposer grinding rolls in said grinding chamber said grinding chamberprovided at one end with an inclined Wall por tion forming an overhangand provided at its upper side With a cover plate having an openingabove said overl'iang and also above said grinding rolls, and apreliminary mixing mechanism comprising a casing having its lower endsecured on said plate above said opening, said casing being furtherprovided at its upper end with ahopper and at its lower end with aperforated plate and a shaft mounted to revolve in the last namedcasing, provided with stirring arms above said perforated plate and withcutter below said perforated plate and eoacting therewith.

3c in a briquet fol-tiling machine, a preliminary mixing mechanismcomprising a eylindrical casing provided with a trap at one side, arevoluble shaft in said cylindrical casing having stirring means and acutter, and a perforated plate forming the bottom of said casingimmediately below said trap and immediately above said cutter.

in testimony whereof, I a'lfix my signature in presence of twoWitnesses.

DAVID E. BANGS. Witnesses Anemia E. SANFORD, Conn mans BUCKLEY.

